Survey lauds Louisiana for increase in per-student spending

Despite the millions of dollars cut from Louisiana's higher-education budget in the years after Hurricane Katrina, the state has something about which it can brag. A national survey found that per-student spending by the state at Louisiana's public research universities rose by 3.3 percent between 2002 and 2010.

Rusty Constanza, The Times-Picayune archiveLindsay Maurice-Walker, right, speaks to Ed Stevens, a chemistry faculty member at UNO, about her findings at the University of New Orleans Advanced Material Research Institute poster session in 2010. A national survey found that per-student spending by the state at Louisiana's public research universities rose by 3.3 percent between 2002 and 2010.

Louisiana was one of only seven states with that distinction in a report from the National Science Board, which is the policy-making body of the National Science Foundation. During that period, the amount of state money Louisiana allocated per student rose from $9,733 to $10,050.

In sharp contrast, the report found that national spending per student at public research universities dropped by about 20 percent, from $10,193 to $8,162.

"Louisiana bucked the national trend," said Rolf Lehming, director of the foundation's Science and Engineering Indicators Program.

The other states in which per-student spending rose were New York, Wyoming, Alaska, North Dakota, Delaware and North Carolina. The District of Columbia is also on the list.

Although per-capita state spending in Louisiana increased between 2002 and 2010, the actual amount allocated dropped by nearly 8 percent, from $312 million to $287.9 million, and enrollment fell by 10.6 percent, from 32,059 to 28,643, according to the report.

The study does not measure the number of students lost after Katrina drove thousands of students from the state in the fall of 2005.